feat: configurable chat history scrollback by amanthanvi · Pull Request #423 · Dimillian/CodexMonitor

amanthanvi · 2026-02-12T22:14:26Z

Fixes #422

What

Adds an app-wide setting for chat history scrollback (max items retained per thread).
Adds a Settings UI (unlimited toggle, presets, custom number input) with guidance about performance + re-syncing older messages.
Plumbs the setting into thread item retention logic (null = unlimited).
Virtualizes the conversation list to reduce render cost for large histories (uses existing @tanstack/react-virtual).

Notes

On startup, trimming is deferred until persisted settings hydrate (scrollback is treated as unlimited briefly), preventing older items from being dropped before the configured limit is known.
Increasing the scrollback limit does not automatically re-fetch older history that was previously trimmed; use "Sync from server" on a thread to restore older messages.
"Unlimited" may increase memory usage; virtualization mitigates UI rendering cost but not memory growth.

How to validate

Open Settings → Display & Sound → Chat and adjust scrollback (toggle Unlimited, pick presets, or enter a custom value).
Confirm longer threads retain more items locally and UI remains responsive with large histories.

Tests

npm run lint
npm run typecheck
npm run test
cd src-tauri && cargo test

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR implements configurable chat history scrollback to prevent losing older messages in long-running threads. The implementation adds an app-wide setting (default 200 items) that can be increased up to 5000 or set to unlimited, and uses virtualization to maintain UI performance with large histories.

Changes:

Adds chatHistoryScrollbackItems setting (number | null) to control thread item retention per thread
Implements virtualization for the Messages component using @tanstack/react-virtual with ResizeObserver
Provides Settings UI with unlimited toggle, preset selector (200/500/1000/2000/5000), and custom number input

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 17 out of 17 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
src/utils/threadItems.ts	Adds optional `maxItemsPerThread` parameter to `prepareThreadItems` with null for unlimited
src/utils/threadItems.test.ts	Tests custom and unlimited scrollback limits
src/types.ts	Adds `chatHistoryScrollbackItems: number \| null` to AppSettings type
src/features/threads/hooks/useThreadsReducer.ts	Adds `maxItemsPerThread` to ThreadState and `setMaxItemsPerThread` action
src/features/threads/hooks/useThreadsReducer.test.ts	Tests trimming when maxItemsPerThread is reduced
src/features/threads/hooks/useThreads.ts	Plumbs `chatHistoryScrollbackItems` setting into reducer via useEffect
src/features/threads/hooks/threadReducer/threadItemsSlice.ts	Passes `maxItemsPerThread` option to all `prepareThreadItems` calls
src/features/threads/hooks/threadReducer/threadConfigSlice.ts	New slice to handle `setMaxItemsPerThread` action and re-process all threads
src/features/settings/hooks/useAppSettings.ts	Adds normalization for chatHistoryScrollbackItems (clamps 50-5000, rounds)
src/features/settings/components/sections/SettingsDisplaySection.tsx	Implements Chat scrollback UI with toggle, presets, and input
src/features/settings/components/sections/SettingsDisplaySection.test.tsx	Tests unlimited toggle and preset selection
src/features/messages/components/Messages.tsx	Replaces flat rendering with virtualized list using useVirtualizer and ResizeObserver
src/features/messages/components/Messages.test.tsx	Mocks useVirtualizer for tests
src/styles/messages.css	Adds CSS for virtual list container and rows
src-tauri/src/types.rs	Adds `chat_history_scrollback_items: Option<u32>` to Rust AppSettings with default 200
src/App.tsx	Passes chatHistoryScrollbackItems to useThreads hook

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src/features/settings/components/sections/SettingsDisplaySection.tsx

src/features/messages/components/Messages.tsx

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src/features/messages/components/Messages.tsx

amanthanvi · 2026-02-13T01:55:18Z

@codex review

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Reviewed commit: 7b9fb1301c

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src/features/threads/hooks/useThreads.ts

amanthanvi · 2026-02-13T02:43:15Z

Follow-ups pushed to address review feedback:

Disable preset + reset while Unlimited is enabled (e8bf542).
Stabilize per-row ref callbacks to avoid ResizeObserver churn on rerender (7b9fb13).
Fix settings hydration edge case so we don't trim history before persisted scrollback loads; reducer now seeds maxItemsPerThread up-front and trimming is deferred during settings load (21fc843, plus regression test).

CI is green (lint/typecheck/test + Rust + Tauri builds).

amanthanvi · 2026-02-13T03:27:45Z

@codex review

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Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 18 out of 18 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

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Copilot · 2026-02-13T03:32:20Z

src/features/messages/components/Messages.tsx

+      const observer = new ResizeObserver(() => {
+        rowVirtualizerRef.current.measureElement(node);
+        requestAutoScrollRef.current();
+      });


Superfluous argument passed to default constructor of class ResizeObserverMock.

chatgpt-codex-connector · 2026-02-13T03:33:37Z

Codex Review: Didn't find any major issues. Bravo.

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Dimillian · 2026-02-13T05:47:04Z

@codex review

chatgpt-codex-connector · 2026-02-13T05:53:45Z

Codex Review: Didn't find any major issues. Already looking forward to the next diff.

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Dimillian · 2026-02-13T05:53:47Z

@amanthanvi it introduces an issue, when loading an old thread, and trying to scrollup it'll jump back to the bottom making it almost impossible to scroll up

Dimillian · 2026-02-13T06:07:44Z

Overall lot of complexity by virtualizing the conversation view

amanthanvi · 2026-02-13T14:31:50Z

Got it. Hoping a nice way to add this can be figured out somewhere down the line. Appreciate you taking a look at it! @Dimillian

amanthanvi · 2026-02-13T14:47:45Z

Follow-up: opened #427 as a reduced-scope alternative (same configurable scrollback setting + retention logic, but no Messages virtualization) based on the scroll-jump + complexity feedback here.

amanthanvi added 5 commits February 12, 2026 16:38

feat(settings): add chat history scrollback setting

51790b1

feat(threads): configurable item retention for scrollback

f8d3cf4

feat(settings): add chat history scrollback controls

888b713

test(settings): cleanup SettingsDisplaySection renders

9e5661c

perf(messages): virtualize conversation list

ba45a26

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings February 12, 2026 22:14

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of amanthanvi February 12, 2026 22:14 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Feb 12, 2026

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src/features/settings/components/sections/SettingsDisplaySection.tsx Show resolved Hide resolved

src/features/settings/components/sections/SettingsDisplaySection.tsx Show resolved Hide resolved

src/features/messages/components/Messages.tsx Show resolved Hide resolved

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src/features/messages/components/Messages.tsx Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

amanthanvi added 2 commits February 12, 2026 19:12

fix(settings): disable scrollback controls in unlimited mode

e8bf542

perf(messages): stabilize virtual row refs

7b9fb13

chatgpt-codex-connector bot reviewed Feb 13, 2026

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src/features/threads/hooks/useThreads.ts Show resolved Hide resolved

fix(threads): apply scrollback limit before loading items

21fc843

amanthanvi requested a review from Copilot February 13, 2026 03:27

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Merge branch 'main' into feat/chat-history-scrollback

947d837

fix(messages): refine auto-scroll intent detection near bottom

c3df8a0

fix(messages): disable auto-pin only on explicit user scroll-up

f394b42

Dimillian closed this Feb 13, 2026

amanthanvi mentioned this pull request Feb 13, 2026

feat: configurable chat history scrollback #427

Merged

amanthanvi mentioned this pull request Feb 13, 2026

feat: configurable chat history scrollback (avoid losing older messages) #422

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